Almanac Poetry: Beyond Goyder’s Line, South Australia

This week’s poem from Kevin Densley involves nineteenth century family history, life, loss and heartbreak in the Flinders Ranges region.

Almanac Life (and Poetry): A Desert Poet – Jack Dodds

With Remembrance Day approaching, Nicole Kelly shares some poetry and diary extracts written by her great-grandfather Jack Dodds while he was on active duty at Tobruk during the Second World War.

Almanac Poetry (and Music): ‘Lionheart Summer’

The weather’s getting warmer – summer is approaching. This week’s poem from Kevin Densley, ‘Lionheart Summer’, is about a fondly remembered summer he spent in Adelaide (travelling there from Geelong) as an eighteen-year-old in 1980 … involving his grandmother’s beautifully cool bluestone house in Largs Bay, Test Cricket, the local beer, and a Kate Bush album.

Almanac Poetry: ‘The Practice Nets’ – Philip Hodgins

Footy is over, cricket is here and it’s time to hone up those cricketing skills! Philip Hodgins (1959 – 1995), in his poem ‘The Practice Nets’, reflects upon the role the nets play in the life of cricketers.

Almanac Poetry: ‘Chicken’ Smallhorn

A poem about the legendary Fitzroy champ, Wilfred ‘Chicken’ Smallhorn, by Stephen Whiteside.

Almanac Poetry: The Quest of the Holy Grail – in a Nutshell

Not quite Monty Python, but certainly not ‘straight’ either, this week’s poem from Kevin Densley concerns the most famous knightly quest of them all.

Almanac Poetry: 2020 AFL Grand Final Haiku Kukai – smoke and lasers

Haiku Bob’s annual AFL Grand Final Haiku Kukai has been another great success. Check out the results.

Almanac Short Fiction: ‘Bostell’s Lager Man’

The opening of Kafka’s ‘The Metamorphosis’, in which Gregor Samsa awakes from uneasy sleep to find himself transformed into a giant bug, receives an unusual twist in this short story from Kevin Densley. Is KD’s piece a strange cautionary tale? An example of ‘the Aussie surreal’? A modern Aesop’s fable with its origins in the brewery? You be the judge.

Almanac Poetry: ‘An Old Man’ – C.P. Cavafy

C P Cavafy, is a well known Greek poet who was prolific during the late 19th and early 20th century. ‘An Old Man’ reflects on time and wasted opportunities.

Almanac Poetry: The Car Chase in Films from Six Different Countries

A poem about cars speeding around six countries and all that entails is the subject of Kevin Densley’s poetry this week.

Almanac (Footy) Poetry: Fred Swift

Fred Swift captained Richmond’s premiership team in 1967, his last quarter goal-square mark a precursor of Leo Barry many years later. But was he over the goal-line? Bill Wootton captures it all in verse.

Finals Week 2 – Haiku Bob – a bit of life ends

Haiku Bob reflects on the end of Collingwood’s season.

Almanac Poetry: ‘The Whitsun Weddings’ – Philip Larkin

‘The Whitsun Weddings’ is another much loved poem by Philip Larkin.

Almanac Poetry: In a Kelly town museum

In today’s poem, Kevin Densley goes ‘a bit abstract’, to use his own words, with a Ned Kelly theme about going to a museum in Kelly Country as a kid and seeing two particularly interesting artefacts side by side.

Almanac Short Fiction: Floundering

A passage from Kevin Densley on a boy, a fish and the ripples of their brief and frenzied interaction.

The Half-Back Flankers

‘The Half Back Flankers’ is a poem from Damian Balassone’s recent publication, ‘Strange Game in a Strange Land’.

Almanac Poetry: Propinquity

One thousand, nine hundred and forty one years ago – almost to the day, according to some recent research – Mt Vesuvius’s most devastating eruption occurred. This week’s poem from Kevin Densley, ‘Propinquity’ deals with that catastrophe.

Almanac Poetry: ‘In Memoriam’ by Martin Johnston

A new selection of poetry by Martin Johnston (1947 – 1990), ‘Beautiful Objects’ has been released on the thirtieth anniversary of his death.

Haiku Bob: The 2020 AFL Grand Final Haiku Kukai

Haiku Bob is back to remind everyone of the upcoming Grand Final Haiku Kukai – get involved!

Finals Week 1 – Haiku Bob: from time to time

A finals classic had Haiku Bob reaching for the whisky; the result has him rethinking his plans for the spring.